


Actions Run Deep

by MerMagicAnaLily



Series: Love is Pain [4]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Assault, Comfort, F/M, Hurt, I’m in the mood to put you all in pain apparently, M/M, Rape (off-screen), it’s not gonna end folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22658896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MerMagicAnaLily/pseuds/MerMagicAnaLily
Summary: Marty’s whole body clenched when he heard what Andi had to say. “They’re dead…”“Marty?”“They’re dead!” He got up and T.J. jumped up from the bed and grabbed him, holding him back. “Let me go, Kippen! Let go!”“What are you going to do, Marty?!” T.J. asked, trying to wrestle him back down to the chair. “Run all the way to Shadyside?!”“You don’t understand!”“Don’t I?! Marty, if anyone understands, I do!”Marty screamed and fought for a little bit longer before breaking down and falling to the floor, into T.J.’s arms as he shook with anger, and quickly wiped his tears away. “If I ever...EVER see them again...they’re dead...all of them!”
Relationships: Buffy Driscoll/Marty, Cyrus Goodman/T. J. Kippen
Series: Love is Pain [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1497239
Comments: 1
Kudos: 40





	Actions Run Deep

“Okay, so I’m trying to show off how to do a half court shot to the boy’s basketball team, right?” Buffy said. “I’ve done that shot like, a million times before…”

“And you call me arrogant?” Marty raised an eyebrow, and Buffy narrowed her eyes at the phone screen. “Sorry, sorry, continue.”

She chuckled and kept walking over to the bleachers of the baseball field. “Anyways. They were betting me that I couldn’t make a half-court shot since not even Captain Extraordinare Timothy Jimothy Kippen could do that.”

“Timothy Jimothy? That’s a new one.”

“Am I close?”

“Not even remotely, but continue.”

“Well, clearly they don’t believe that I can do it, so I try...and I keep trying….”

“Meaning you weren’t able to do it as easily as you were making it sound…”

“Martin Rodrigo Sousa Rosas Kippen!”

“Okay, okay!” He laughed. “I’ll let you finish the story.”

“Right, well I’m having an impossible time shooting this half-court shot, and since I was Jonah’s ride home, he was sitting in the bleachers waiting for me.”

“And she was taking forever, might I add,” Jonah said, coming up to the bleachers and sitting next to Buffy. “How’s it going Marty?”

“Jonah Beck! How’s life, man?”

“It’s good. Kinda weird to be a captain of something that isn’t Ultimate.”

“Can’t handle ‘real sports’ beck?” T.J. said, appearing on the edges of the screen with Cyrus. 

“Hey, Ultimate is a real sport,” Cyrus defended. “I should know, I’m an honorary Space Otter.”

“Is that the shirt you wear to bed?”

“Anyways!” Buffy interrupted again. “I’m having trouble shooting from the half court, and Jonah is just getting more and more impatient, so-“

“So I grab the ball out of her hands, and just march to the end of the court and make a full court shot and ask her if she can take me home.”

Everyone on the other side of the phone cracked up and even Jonah was laughing a little. 

“Was that the first time you did that?” T.J. asked. 

“Specifically a full court? Yeah. I was just really lucky and really tired. But Buffy finally let me go home.”

“Speaking of going home…” T.J. said. “Aren’t you playing tonight so you have to get to home base?”

“We’ve got some time before the game starts, and I wanted to talk to you guys! How’s New York?”

“Pretty great,” Cyrus said. “I’ve been going to all the sports games for these two, we see broadway plays like, twice a week…but we still miss everything about home. I call, like, each parent at least once a day.”

“Most of my time with him is taken up by four phone calls,” T.J. joked. “My one phone call is nothing compared to that.”

“Sorry I love my family,” he joked. 

“Yeah, I miss Shadyside too,” T.J. said. “Like the sports teams, the park with the swing set...oh! The gym I worked at! I wonder how those kids are doing. They already thought I looked a little scary when I picked up a desk shift after I got out of the hospital.”

“I miss running at Shadyside and Grant,” Marty said. “I was the fastest on the boys team…until someone threatened my status as a boy…”

“Okay, no more gloom and sadness guys!” Jonah said. “We’re about to play a game.”

“Who’s it against?” 

“We were supposed to go against J.P. Taravella, but they cancelled last minute, so there’s another team coming,” he said. “Doesn’t matter because we’ll still win.”

“Glad to hear it JB. Gotta keep the captain title alive.”

“Kippen, you weren’t ever the captain of the baseball team.”

“Yeah, but Leo is doing fine on the basketball team and we weren’t close enough friends to really care. You on the other hand…”

“Yeah, yeah,” he laughed and then looked up and froze. “Uh oh.”

“What’s uh-oh?” Cyrus asked. 

“Our competitors…” Jonah said, and Buffy looked up too and she did a quick inhale of her breath. 

“Jackson High.”

* * *

Buffy and Jonah had hung up on the three, promising to call back later, claiming to be attempting to save her phone battery. 

“You don’t think they’re going to do anything stupid, do you?” Cyrus asked worried. 

“Buffy? Buffy doesn’t do anything stupid, ever,” T.J. said. 

“Yeah, but she’s also rash and when it comes to her friends, she’s reckless to a fault,” Marty said. “Especially Cyrus. You guys didn’t see her when Cyrus’s stepmom called us to tell us what happened.”

“That bad?”

“She broke some of her track trophies in anger,” he said. “And the amount of screaming and crying…it was intense.”

“With T.J., she shut down,” Cyrus said. “Like...scary shut down. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that angry, and the last time she was severely angry before that…well...she actually hated T.J. and was mad at me for being friends with him.”

“Damn. She was angrier than when she despised Toxic T.J.?” He raised his eyebrows. “That’s a development in our friendship.”

“She might have also been trying to be a strong figure for me,” Cyrus said. “I was a shaking mess. Don’t ask me how I drove your Jeep that night, because I still don’t remember how I saw through my tears.” 

T.J.’s face fell a little and put his arm around Cyrus. “ I know what you mean. I don’t even like remembering how I felt when your parents called my mom…”

**********

_ “Mom, it’s just so frustrating sometimes! I mean, I still love the game and Marty and Leo are doing great, but I sometimes just want to grab the ball and start running and playing myself,” T.J. said, sitting in the passenger seat of the car. She was driving him to work at the kiddie gym while his car was completely destroyed and they were all saving money to buy him another used car.  _

_ “I know T.J., but you’re healing so well, and you can play the occasional pickup game with a few people as long as you’re playing light.” _

_ “I know,” he said. “Buffy’s been saying that she’s going to play in a folding chair against me and still win. Even after I’m healed.”  _

_ “What a strange friendship you have with her,” his mom laughed. “The two of you used to hate each other so much...the amount of times I heard you cursing Buffy Driscoll’s name…” _

_ “Yeah…I was an idiot.” _

_ “I used to think you had a crush on her.” _

_ “Clearly that was ~Before~ I came out to you…” _

_ “Of course. Now I don’t think I could even imagine you with someone other than Cyrus.”  _

_ T.J. smiled, thinking of how his boyfriend sat by him as he healed, baking fresh blueberry macadamia muffins almost daily, brining him homework and sitting with him while he did the homework to catch up, and even having the patience of an actual angel to work through his Algebra 2 homework with him. “Yeah…I don’t think I can either.” _

_ Suddenly, Sharon Goodman’s name popped up on the car Bluetooth as an incoming call. “Speak of the devil,” his mother joked before answering. “Hi Sharon, how are you?” _

_ “Emily...is T.J. with you?”  _

_ T.J. noticed the warble in her voice and immediately went on high alert. “Yeah, I’m here. Is everything okay Mrs. Goodman?” _

_ There was hesitation in her voice. “No…I’m sorry…but the boys from Jackson High? Th-they found Cyrus.” _

_ Everything else went numb for T.J., and he listened, absorbing every word while his mind raced with every horrible scenario, replying a version of events based on what Sharon was saying, and after hearing that they tried to kill him, not just beat him to unconsciousness like they did with him, he cut her off. “What hospital?” _

_ “T.J...Cyrus is really…” _

_ “What hospital, Mrs. Goodman?” _

_ “...the same as yours. St. Sebastian.” _

_ ********** _

“T.J...I’m here...I’m okay, remember?” 

He had to shake his head a few times and focus his gaze before seeing his boyfriend and best friend. “Yeah...Yeah I’m good, I’m here…” he sighed. “Sorry…it’s still fresh.”

“It’s been less than a year, of course it’s fresh.” 

Marty kept staring at his phone, wishing he could just reach across it and be with Buffy. “It’s so dumb. They haven’t even done anything new since...well...you guys, and I’m still terrified out of my mind and hoping Buffy is okay.”

“Yeah, well, two different groups from the same place hurt us.”

“Three if you separate the basketball and baseball team for me,” T.J. said. 

“It’s normal for you to be afraid of what those people can do to Jonah and Buffy.”

* * *

“Jonah, look at me, you’re going to be okay,” Buffy said, handing him a bottle of water. “Everything’s okay.” 

Jonah nodded, taking small sips outside the boy’s locker room while Buffy knelt across from him on the ground. “Thanks Buffy...Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for your panic attacks, you can’t control those. What matters is that you’re okay.”

He nodded and took her hand, breathing deeply. “I need to get ahold of myself so I can play these guys.”

She was about to say something when she heard some of the Jackson High players start talking. “Isn’t this the place that got Jonesy and the others in Juvie?”

“Jonesy, Roberts, and even Ethan’s crew,” another one said. “All because they were sheltering some fags.”

Buffy’s eyes started to narrow and Jonah gripped her hand, trying to calm her down. 

“Wait, they also found tampons in the boys room. Clearly some confused girl is here too.”

“Maybe she left with those fags.” 

Buffy’s muscles tensed, and so did Jonah’s, but he still tried to keep her in control.

“Yeah, that bitch couldn’t get any dick so she tried to grow one herself.” 

“He has a bigger dick than you guys could have in your dreams!” Buffy shouted out, and Jonah only tightened his grip on her, trying to stop her. 

The group of boys stopped and looked over at her. “What did you say?”

“I said Marty, one of the boys you literally drove away from the fucking state, has a bigger dick than you could ever have in your dreams.” 

They looked at each other with smirks. “We got rid of the fags, it seems. Maybe Ethan and Richie would love to hear that news.” 

“Yeah, they can go live their disgusting lives somewhere else.”

“They never did anything to hurt you!” She shouted and Jonah held her back. 

“Buffy, stop. These idiots aren’t worth your time.”

“You’re the new captain?” The taller one said. “Boys, looks like we have nothing to be afraid of. Maybe it’s even another fairy.”

“I’m not even gay,” he said. “And it wouldn’t even matter if I was. I know I don’t need to hurt anyone else to feel better about myself.”

The Jackson boys looked at one another and started stepping forward. “What did you say to us, pretty boy?”

Buffy wrenched her hand away and stepped up to the boys. “You idiots should just step off. Play the damn game, and then go home, where none of us have to look at you, ever again.”

One of them laughed. “Oh, need your girlfriend to protect you, Captain?”

“Trust me, I’m not the one protecting him,” she sneered, and then she left to go back to the bleachers, unaware of another presence following her out.

* * *

“Should we be worried that we haven’t heard from them in two hours?” Cyrus said, pacing his bedroom floor. T.J. was on the bed while Marty took up a spot in Cyrus’s desk chair. 

“I don’t know. She said she’d call us back,” Marty said, equally worried. 

“Maybe her phone just died and we’re creating a bunch of horrible hypotheticals in our heads,” T.J. said, for once being the logical one in the group. 

“T.J., those are Jackson kids,” Marty said. “They almost killed you and Cyrus for being gay and almost doxed me for being trans. I don’t trust any of those guys.”

“I trust Buffy,” T.J. said. 

“I do...I’m also a realist. Those guys are gigantic and typically attack in a pack.”

“I’m sure she’s fine. Let’s give it a few more minutes before we call her again. Just in case she’s around those guys,” T.J. said. “So they don’t see our faces.”

Marty nodded, shaking his leg as he sat. T.J. may have looked calm and collected, but inside, he was made up into half a million knots. Cyrus was his first friend and boyfriend, but Buffy became his first, real best friend. She needed to be okay. T.J. needed her to be okay. 

After what felt like hours, but was only about seven minutes, someone started calling Cyrus’s phone, which had fallen beneath one of the pillows. T.J. and Cyrus were both tearing the bed apart, looking for it when T.J. found it and answered it. “Hello?!” 

“...Hey guys…”

“Andi?!” Cyrus jumped over. “Andi, is everything okay?”

“...You guys need to hear this.” 

* * *

**********

_ In order to go from the dugout back to the bleachers, Buffy had to make a way behind a tall wall, secluded from the rest of the people. She was still so riled up from talking to those idiots from Jackson High with Jonah, she didn’t see one of them slip away and follow her. Of course, she found that out the instant he grabbed her wrist and pinned her against the wall.  _

_ “Wha-get off of me you...you Neanderthal!” _

_ “Mouthy bitch, aren’t you?” He grunted. He had slight difficulty pinning her against the wall, but he was able to. “You think your boyfriend back there is going to come save you?”  _

_ “I don’t need anyone to save me, jackass!” She tried fighting him off and kneed him. Instead of getting him to let her go, he knocked her to the ground and covered her mouth.  _

_ “You’re gonna pay now, N***** Bitch.” _

_ She tried to scream through his hand, but nobody could hear her over the national anthem playing to start the game. _

**********

Marty’s whole body clenched when he heard what Andi had to say. “They’re dead…”

“Marty?”

“They’re dead!” He got up and T.J. jumped up from the bed and grabbed him, holding him back. “Let me go, Kippen! Let go!”

“What are you going to do, Marty?!” T.J. asked, trying to wrestle him back down to the chair. “Run all the way to Shadyside?!”

“You don’t understand!”

“Don’t I?! Marty, if anyone understands, I do!”

Marty screamed and fought for a little bit longer before breaking down and falling to the floor, into T.J.’s arms as he shook with anger, and quickly wiped his tears away. “If I ever...EVER see them again...they’re dead...all of them!”

“Marty,” Cyrus got down on his level and looked at him in his eyes. “We know how much you love Buffy. We all do in different ways. You love her romantically, like the other half you needed, T.J. loves her as a best friend, the person who takes none of his bullshit and constantly shows him where he needs to improve by showing him what’s not acceptable, and me...I’ve known Buffy since we were seven…she and Andi are my sisters in every way but biological. The thought that…that someone hurt them...it’s like those assholes hurt me again. I want to run out of my house and wheeze my way over to her and just hug her until I can’t let go. And it physically hurts that I can’t do that right now.”

“What do I do then?” He asked. 

“We listen to Andi, talk and text them however we can…” he said. “And I’m going to have my parents see what’s the first flight they can get us on,” Cyrus said. 

Marty nodded quietly. “Okay...okay…” 

“And for now…know that we’re all angry, and sad, and…who knows what else,” Cyrus said. “But we’re doing it together.” 

Marty nodded again, grabbing a pillow and gripping it tightly, as Andi continued talking, staying silent as she noticed they needed to talk things out.

**********

_ Jonah had gotten away from the jeers of the other guys, desperate to get away from them and back to his friends, to Buffy. He needed to be near good people again. And then he saw it. He saw a green Jackson High uniform wrestling Buffy down on the ground. No...not wrestling, worse.  _

_ He didn’t know what was happening next. He felt the bat in his hand, he heard the blood rush on in his ears, and he felt his throat going raw from screaming. And he screamed as loud as he could, angry as he could. He wasn’t even sure he was screaming words or not, but the next thing he knew, his muscles were sore from swinging, and he saw that green uniform crawling away, bruised, and hurt, and he saw Buffy shivering and crying.  _

_ Buffy crying...that was absolutely unacceptable. She’s the one who never idolized him, who saw Jonah as a person first and as ‘Jonah Beck’ second in middle school. He didn’t even think before taking his jacket off and wrapping Buffy in it and before he took out his phone.  _

_ “911, what’s your emergency?” _

_ “I need an ambulance...and the police. My friend was...she was attacked…and I beat her attacker off with a baseball bat.” _

**********

“If he needs bail paid, I’ll pay it,” Cyrus said. 

“No, the cops are letting him off, since he was acting in self defense of another person, and he technically didn’t escalate the violence,” she said. 

“Good. Cops finally do something right,” T.J. muttered. 

“He’s at the hospital with Buffy. She’ll be fine. They used the kit on her and she’s going to be released either tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on how she’s feeling. I’m headed there now to check on her in person.”

“We’ll fly down as soon as we can,” Marty promised. 

“Actually,” Cyrus interrupted. “Buffy’s mom just bought her and Jonah plane tickets to fly up here. She says they need a break from Shadyside and Jackson.”

“Seriously, what is in the water at that goddamn school!” Marty yelled. “Homophobia, racism...all the different types of assault under the sun?!”

“I know,” Cyrus said, trying to keep the calm around everyone, while failing to keep tears out of his eyes, trying not to flash back to his own assault, or to T.J.’s turn in the hospital. “This is an epidemic…but all we can do is ensure our own personal safety.” 

“Do you think Buffy’s going to move up here too?” T.J. asked quietly.

“I don’t know…” Cyrus said. “I don’t know anything, except that we’re going to be here for her when she arrives tomorrow. And…whatever she wants, we’ll do it.” 

* * *

When Buffy and Jonah arrived the next morning, the first thing they requested was sweets, like all the ice cream and cookies, to which Cyrus and T.J. were more than happy to run out of the house and buy by the bagfuls, while Buffy and Jonah stayed with Marty. The two of them walked side by side, thankful that there were no visible bruises on Buffy.

“She’s quiet now...you see that, right?” T.J. said, and Cyrus nodded. “She’s never quiet.”

“She’s only quiet when it’s bad,” Cyrus said. “Like when she thought she was moving away from us in middle school.”

“You mean back in Time-Capsule-Buffy era?”

“Yeah,” Cyrus said. “But she hates more having something be made a big deal out of. This...this is probably the biggest thing of them all.”

“How should we react?”

“The way we normally do with Buffy,” he said. “Just...with extra love.”

“That explains why Jonah and Marty have become her human pillows. 

“Yeah…and my family is going to help by helping hire the best lawyers to make sure that asshole doesn’t see sunlight for a long time.”

“If he’s lucky,” T.J. said. “I would have made sure he spent life in there...or six feet under.”

“Teej.”

“I just...I’m sorry. Toxic T.J. comes out when someone hurts someone I care about. And they hurt you and Buffy.”

“They hurt you too.”

“I healed.”

“So did I,” he said, touching his cheek. “Big heart Kippen,you need to care about yourself like you do the rest of us.”

“I don’t have to look at myself the way I look at you,” he said. “And you are what makes life even better.”

Cyrus smiled and gave him a small kiss. “Come on, let’s go stuff Buffy with Mint Chocolate Chip.”

* * *

Buffy seemed to be in a bit of better spirits after hanging around Marty and Jonah while the two were out. There was still a sense of pain behind her eyes, but Cyrus knew better than to push Buffy, and he also knew Buffy knew better than to keep it bottled up. She took the ice cream and started opening the pint and eating it while Jonah, Marty, and T.J. started bickering about some sports thing, Cyrus sat down next to Buffy.

“How are you feeling?”

“It...it’ll be better,” she said. “It won’t go away, ever…that I know.”

“I’m sorry…I know how you feel.”

She nodded. “But if I have you guys, like you had us…I’ll be okay in the end.”

“You’ll be better than okay,” Cyrus said. “You’re Buffy Driscoll.” 

  
  



End file.
